James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Today is Friday the 13th, the lucky day for one of the four following videos. A while ago one of the blog readers suggested a book trailer contest for Imaginative Realism. You are the judges!

Please watch all four videos (they're only a minute long) and vote for your favorite in the poll at left. The videos are presented in the order I received them. It's OK to vote for more than one video. Poll closes Sunday morning.

"Imaginative Realism" by Room 9 Studios, Chana High School.

"If You Can See, You Can Imagine Too" by Emmanuel Laverde. (Link to website)

"The James Gurney Show" By GooGoo Supreme (Click Here to see flash animation).

Note to contestants: Since there's a small number of entries, we can improve the prizes that I announced in the contest rules. Each contest entrant will get to choose one favorite signed and remarqued book, DVD, or audio from the selection in The Dinotopia Store, as well as an Imaginative Realism poster. The Grand Prize Winner will get the choice of two books from the Store selection.

Thank you all for entering and working so hard! I'm glad I'm not the judge. I'd never be able to decide!--------Addendum: The votes are in! Thanks for all who voted, and thanks to the four contestants for creating those incredible videos.

Emmanuel Laverde, you were the winner with 113 votes, followed the Futuristic Flamingo with 94, Room 9 Studios with 59, and GooGoo Supreme with 27.

Being completely in the spirit of Mr. Gurney liking a bit of public attention but not taking himself too seriously (tron goggles, unicycle painter, publishing hilarious poses for paintings), I liked the Gurney Show best. (don't forget to hover over the book at the end: you'll hear a special message from Mars). But the Golden Idea here was adding the Statler and Waldorf parakeet.

But that's just a very personal choice. More objectively, I have to say they are all extremely well made.

I'm really going to have to vote for "It begins with a thought." A friend linked me to this andddd... La la la... I have to say I was most impressed with it. Can't quite say the others didn't impress as well.

Damn, that was a hard choice - especially because they are so different in style. But I do have a particularly soft spot for monumental music and ditto catch lines accompanying images of stuff that fly, so "If you can see ..." ended up getting my vote.